Gray and Gold
by Chippster
Summary: Nevermore rp fanfic:: When Ligeia shows up at the base; hurt and scarred, Legrand is there for him.


ANGST. OH GOD, WHY ANGST WHY.

All right, ANOTHER nevermore rp fanfiction. OH YES. LOTS OF THESE. xD

This one is Ligeia and Legrand - ish. It kind of hints at pairing fluff love! D

Disclaimer: PLOTLINE DUN BELONG TO ME! PLOTLINE BELONG TO HOT POCKETTTTTTTT... lol not really. Plotline is Trash-kun's on gaia, and the characters in here all belong to other people... besides Liggy! He's Mine so I can torture him all I want! :3

BEWARE. FLUFF AND ANGST LIE AHEAD. the perfect mix for angsty crowfolk! D

ON ANOTHER NOTE: I just realized some people are actually reading these fanfics. XD I am like "LOL WHY?!" Guess that NOTHING to post on the internet is safe from the eyes of the public. o w o

Ligeia had been gone for hours. Everyone back at the home-base was beginning to worry. Why hadn't he shown up by now? He told everyone he had planned on going out for only a few minutes, to pick up some tile cleaner that he needed in the place. That was hours ago, right at sunset. It was midnight.

Everyone else had dragged themselves off to bed. They decided to do a better search in three hours, keeping to the six hour rule. Someone goes off by themselves… you give them 6 hours before you begin to go out looking for them, unless they give off a distress signal. Then you go earlier. They had gotten no word from Ligeia though, so everyone decided to wake in three hours to begin the search. Everyone besides Legrand.

He volunteered to stay up, in case Ligeia returned while everyone else was asleep, so he could switch off the alarm that was going to go off in three hours. It was a plan they had set up in advanced… as if knowing this situation was going to happen many times on their journey. Legrand was not going to get to sleep anyway… though he doubted anyone else would either.

Life was frightening without a bird keeper, with half of their former flock after them.

Legrand was on the couch of their living room, lying back on the old trashy thing, trying to find a way to pass the time when he heard someone go through their secret entrance to the warehouse. He leapt up, turning the corner to make his way to the entrance, to see if Ligeia had finally returned.

He was back all right… but not in the good condition everyone was hoping for.

Ligeia stumbled through their entrance, dragging one of his feet behind him as he clutched one of his arms, head down and staring at the floor. He would have tripped and fallen on the ground if Legrand was not there to catch him. Legrand caught Ligeia, able to maneuver him into a comfortable position in his arms as he picked him up, carrying him the rest of the way to the living room. Normally, Ligeia would insist he could make it on his own. He said nothing.

It was not until Legrand set Ligeia down on the couch, that he got a good look at what shape he was in, face wise. He had a few bruises forming on his cheeks, chin, and neck along with a few cuts here and there. Ligeia simply stared at Legrand as he sat down on the couch next to him, to try to get a closer look. Ligeia's face was stained with patches of dirt and soot… the only clear area being under his eyes and along his cheeks, where tears had been streaming down.

But Ligeia can't cry now. He won't cry. He is a leader, and example to his flock. He is in pain, emotionally and physically, but refuses to cry or show any sign of weakness, even to his own flock.

Before Legrand began to shut down the alarm to let his flock sleep in, and begin to fix Ligeia up, he had a few questions for the 'leader' of the group.

"Rogue crows?"

"One of them…" Ligeia was able to rasp out, voice strained … possibly from yelling or screaming. Legrand shook his head, reaching out and putting a hand gently on one of his shoulders and replied "Don't speak. You need to rest your voice a bit."

Ligeia simply stared for a moment, debating whether or not he should argue that he was fine and didn't need to rest his voice, but instead slowly nodded.

"Now, was it the Raven?"

Ligeia shook his head. Not the Raven. Legrand knew who it probably was, but decided another name before he got to the inevitable.

"Valdemar?"

Another shake of the head. Not him either. So it had to be one person…

"Frederick."

Ligeia dropped his gaze, staring down at his lap as he sat for a moment… one hand going up and resting over the left side of his chest, over his heart… not giving an answer.

"Frederick it is, then." Legrand said, standing up and walking out of the room for a second, returning with a small first aid kit with a few extra supplies in it for burns and fire wounds. He sat down next to Ligeia once more, looking down at his ankle and where he was had been clutching at his arm, seeing a few red stains forming on his shirt.

"Did he…."

"I got away before anything like that happened, Legrand." Ligeia said, cutting him off, knowing exactly what he was going to ask. "The ankle injury is from tripping while I was running." He explained, straining his voice so that he was loud enough for Legrand to hear.

"All right, got it." Legrand said, before Ligeia could attempt to explain more, verbally. Ligeia's hand slid off of his chest, thunking down into his lap as he sat for a few moments.

"I will take it from here." Ligeia said, using his broken voice even more, although he knew it was a bad idea. He did not want to make others suffer by having to clean up after his mistakes. His pride would not allow Legrand to help.

Legrand looked like he was going to insist that Ligeia accept help for a moment, before he let out a distressed sigh and put the kit down, right next to Ligeia. He knew that no matter what, he was not getting Ligeia to accept any help. Ligeia was stubborn. Accepting help would show weakness… at least in his mind.

"All right, here you go." Legrand said, patting the box for a moment, trying to keep on a warm smile to somehow brighten up the mood. When that didn't seem to work well… he moved so that he was kneeling in front of the couch, forcing Ligeia to create eye-contact. Ligeia seemed shocked and almost afraid for a moment, before he calmed down, trying to keep his cool while looking at Legrand.

"Wha-"

"You don't need to hide this stuff from us, dearie." Legrand said, patting one of Ligeia's knees. "We were worried. We care about you." He added, waiting for some kind of sign in Ligeia. Ligeia looked him in the eye, trying to remain expressionless, but could not help but increase the size of his frown as a bit of his inner turmoil began to slip out, tears pooling in his eyes once more.

Sign enough.

Legrand slid up so he was kneeling right in front of the couch, reaching around Ligeia and wrapping his arms around the injured light-haired leader, embracing him. At first, Ligeia did not respond, but very slowly he began to loosely return the hug, letting his head rest on Legrand's shoulder as his shoulders shook a bit, trying so hard to hold back the river of tears begging to spill out of his eyes.

"That's okay, dearie. Let it all out." Legrand said, rubbing circles on Ligeia's back and trying to get him to calm down.

They stayed like that for a while, not a sound in the room besides a few rare sobs from Ligeia, and his heavy breathing as he tried to control the pain. The moment ended when Ligeia picked his head off of Legrand shoulder, and pulled back a bit.

The moment Ligeia could see Legrand face to face, new tears sprung up in his eyes and he finally looked like he was in pain.

"Ahhhh… what's the matter, dear? Finally see how much you love me and need me by your side?"

"Y-… y-your…" Ligeia began, snuffing a bit, before beginning again. "You're kneeling on my ankle, you gold-for-brains _nitwit_"

Legrand stood up suddenly, realizing that he had been on Ligeia's ankle for a few moments, the injured one. "Whoops… ah, sorry about that!" he said with a smile, going back to the first aid kit and pulling out something to wrap Ligeia's ankle with.

While Legrand helped, Ligeia could not help but think over the past few hours, and his future.

_'This must be why I can't fall in love with him._' He told himself, as he watched Legrand help him.

_'He will never deserve someone as needy and horrible as me.'_


End file.
